Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, recently announced the availability of a new online digital prototyping assessment tool. Digital Prototyping software enables a realistic 3D simulation to optimize and validate a product before it is built, reducing the number of physical prototypes.

The tool, which utilizes Aberdeen’s primary research in product innovation, helps companies identify their biggest product development challenges, compares their design practices to industry benchmarks, and quantifies potential time and cost savings by adopting Best-in-Class capabilities. The simple assessment, based on Aberdeen’s unique PACEâ„¢ research methodology, steps through the product development process to determine where an individual company excels and helps identify opportunities for improvement.

By completing a 10-minute online survey, users receive a personalized summary of how they compare to other organizations as well as custom tailored next steps to improve their development process. The tool makes recommendations by comparing responses to prior Aberdeen research that identified design and engineering best practices exhibited by Best-in-Class companies.

Aberdeen collaborated on this project with Autodesk, a company known for its broad portfolio of Digital Prototyping software, to provide counsel on specific product design and development technologies that can help companies achieve the best practices that Aberdeen has identified. The recommendations also include individualized cost and time savings that could be realized by adopting these practices.